Lee Hower Wrote:
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> I always wondered how SP&S liked the two they had
> in comparison to the fleet of RS3s that they
> rostered. Were they considered interchangable?
> As it was, I rode behind an C415-RS3 combination
> on the Wishram-Bend mixed in 1970. They could get
> up and go however, as I clocked them at 73mph on
> the way back north.

I don't know the opinion of the SP&S/BN Vancouver mechanical department officers but most of the engine crews hated the C415s. As an employee of the SP&S and later the BN I was a big ALCO fan (I hated running the EMDs because of their slow-as-molasses throttle response compared to an ALCO) but I'll be the first to say that ALCO really lost their touch on that model. As I recall, they were slippery (probably because of what appeared to be very unequal weight distribution between the two trucks), very vibration prone (probably related to the large drive shaft laying in pillow blocks under the cab floor) and quite hot (mostly because of lack of cross-cab ventilation caused by the very poorly designed union contract-required bay windows). Watchers of the SP&S 100 and 101 (later BN 4010 and 4011) will recall that the original cab-hugging engine exhaust stacks were straightened into vertical-only stacks. That occurred after one of the original stacks caused the pegboard-covered cab wall to catch on fire. Does that give you a clue as to how hot the cab interiors were?

Yes, they were considered interchangeable and ran in any kind of a power consist. I ran them a lot on the "Rocket" (mixed trains 101, 102 and 105) pre-Amtrak and just about everywhere else on the SP&S except east of Pasco and I hated them. As I recall, they had Woodward governors on the diesels and they were very unresponsive compared to previous models of ALCO power.

Yes, they could get up and go - downhill! 73 MPH? Not all that unusual. Ya gotta remember, this was pre-Ricky Gates days. One didn't make very-commonly-run 3'40" Bend - Celilo Bridge freight train trips by running at the official speed limit! For instance, the 35 MPH posting on the Crooked River Bridge did nothing to help you get up the hill on either side of it. I recall an eastbound Oregon Trunk trip early in my SP&S career where I was standing with one foot putting weight on a diesel wrench placed on an ailing RS3 GE governor, the other foot placed on top of the walkway handrail and both hands gripping the small hood-lifting loop as we passed over the Crooked River bridge at double the speed limit. If we were to have any chance of saving our substantial initial terminal delay accrued at Wishram we needed the ailing loco's horsepower to make it to Bend before going on overtime. We saved our initial terminal arbitrary alright, but I still shudder a little when thinking of being in that position with a 70-MPH wind tearing at me while crossing the bridge.